Rahma woke up to a text

“I got you meeting with my dad for your application to be my tutor!”

“Come to the party at the dean’s place tonight.”

“wear something nice!!!!”

“This is Vorlds btw, and call me ‘Tiffany’ when we’re around others”

What the hell did I get myself into? Rahama slumped back into her bed, the memories of all what she learned yesterday rushing back to her.

She was from another world, but now a new thought occurred to her, a more scientific thought, a thought that she should’ve thought of before.

Another world or am I just in a… “simulation?” she whispered that last word.

What if whatever was in that other world just… Created her. Was she truly herself there or is….

She was silent for a while awed by the realization

“I am a simulation” she whispered.

“You sure partied hard last night” her roommate Mei said. “You didn’t let that creep Josh give you those shrooms did you?”

“What?” It her a moment to remember the frat boy Josh in her Computer Science class. “No! Hey Mei can I ask you a question?”

“is it a high question?” Mei said without looking up from her phone.

“Kinda” Rahama sat by her bed “Do you think we live in a simulation? And if so, what should we do?”

Mei dropped her phone and looked at the ceiling,

“Depends on what kind of world we lived in before I guess, if I lived in a world like that Matrix movie, I don’t want to wake up to some dark gloomy place, I would stay in the Matrix but find out way to hack the system, you know?”

“You wouldn’t want to ‘wake up’?”

“Nah, I am product of this world,” She went back to her phone “I don’t think I will really enjoy any different world, especially if that world sucked so much they had to create a simulation like this.” Mei then muttered “Hell, if there is a simulation in this world I can escape to I would, I don’t want to live this boring capitalism simulation.”

Rahma thought about it as she prepared for the party. Her life in that other world did sound interesting. Literally magical but did she really want to go back into the stress of having the future of an entire kingdom on her shoulder?

She probably knew what needs to be done to protect the kingdom now, some nuclear, or biological weapon.

Should I really give them Nukes?

Aside from the moral quandaries of giving a society that just started industrializing nuclear weapons she wasn’t sure she (or any human) could have all the necessary information for nuclear technology.

She was in a quandary really advanced technology were impossible for a single human to know, but at the same time all the simple technologies that she could transport were also easy to replicate by her enemies.

She wished she knew of something that can’t be replicated, like a technology that can only work her, like a superpower.

“I wish I superpower” she muttered.

her friend Charlie who was doing her hair for the party thought she was talking to him.

“Me and you both sis” she liked Charlie, it might be e stereotype but he really reminded her of her brother Ihsan, she wondered if they would date Ihsan if her brother was here.

That’s another thing she worried about, while she cared about fulfilling her original purpose in learning of a way to save her “magical kingdom” her immediate concerns were much more mundane. To get enough money and hire a good immigration lawyer to get her family here.

She borrowed a dress from one her more affluent friend to go to the dean ‘dinner party. This was her chance to get into higher society.

She knows from this life and the previous ones that your inventions and creations only matter as much as you can sell them to the right people and befriend the right people.

Connections were what made her a rich tycoon in that other world, not the inventions. The inventions only got her through the front doors of those gatherings…

(SYNCHRONIZATION BROKEN?)

You remember the day your father came to you in the forge, weeks after the first time you improved the forge.

“Dad, look!” You tell him, wiping your brows “If only we can afford this, we’ll be able to triple or even quadruple the production!”

You point at the new design you made of the forge; this one would require you first to make a titanium alloy.

“Daughter,” Your fathers come to you at the forge, he’s looking sad for the first time since you’ve came back. “Quality and the quantity of the daggers we’re making is truly amazing!”

He pauses “But this is attracting the wrong eyes, the guild master up town is already making a fuss, he’s threatening a boycotted that would ruin our village”

This is one of the few times you see your father afraid. Almost… pitiful and disgusting.

“Dad! It’s going to be ok, I am creating something wonderful, something that can change the world, the town can withstand a boycott!”

His dad backed up. He looked afraid now. He was afraid of the guild not you, right… right!?

______________________________________________________

(SYNCHRONIZATION BROKEN)

___________________________________________________________

What the fuck was that! You wonder… she wonders.

Did what’s happening, what are you reading, stop! NO YOU STOPPP IT’S NOT…

________________________________________________

Rahma wakes up in a daze, what the hell was that! Where was she, it looked like a fancy…

“Oh Good, she’s awake!” An old lady with a very posh crisp WASP accent says.

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“My dear Rachxma..” the dean was butchering her name. “You were walking down the road and you got a horrible seizure! My wife was worried sick about you!”

“I am ok…” she never had a seizure her entire life, this life at least did she have one in the previous….

_____

“Mrs Smith. PLEASE!” The guilds’ manger begs you “We didn’t mean all this” He’s terrified and piss himself.

“It’s too late now, I’ve already sent the assassins, you shouldn’t have crossed me like that Theodore, you fat piece of…”

____

Fatima woke up in an ER.

Mr. Vorlds sits beside her, no… the little girl who’s writing a fiction and wearing a princess costume.

“Don’t pass out again, look at me, you live in this world and you exist only in this world, that other thing isn’t all you, it was but it was also a different you, stay with me” The little girl says… Mr. Vorld says.

“I… wasn’t a good person there” Rahma says uncertainly. She didn’t remember it well “I might have done some terrible things”

She is scared her previous thoughts on the matter reversed, this wasn’t some grand scientific discovery, this wasn’t a fairytale she thought she was living. This was a horror story. She is in a simulation controlled by a sick and evil god she can’t live like this… she can’t …

_________________________

You wake with a start… Mr. Vorld the old pervert is still gaged next to you.

“Colonel” the Royal guard interrupts you uncertain that he should’ve spoken “Your nose is bleeding madam Colonel…”

Your knuckles are still bloody with the old bastarad’s blood and didn’t notice that some of the blood was yours… your nose was bleeding. It happens sometimes when you get too excited.

You were close, you are going to learn something out of this…

You were close you felt it, that version of you was smart. A literal child genius, she was just about to get rich and maybe learn how to make powerful weapons, real weapons like that atomic shit you heard about… or that. chemical warfare. This will destroy that fucking child “emperor”.

Once you do you can maybe remove that fucking queen. You will be queen then. Once you do you will do away with all those pesky child labor laws, and … truly rule the world. You will try again. You kick the old Vorld in the chest,

“You will help me learn more Old man” You kick his side, “even if it’s the last thing you do…”

______________________________

Rahma looks sadly at the little girl next to her,

“I am so so sorry” she, not some evil person was doing this but her, just another version of her a more ruthless version who …

Before she could go into another seizure Mr. Vorlds held her.

“Listen if you continue thinking about morality that would only wake them up!” The little girl was bruised, she looked tired now, her dress wasn’t quirky dress of a princess it was sign of a negligent father who lose his daughter for hours.

“Stop!” Mr Vorlds slaps her again “Think instead of how Nuclear weapons are made!”

“What!” Rahma shakes herself “I am not giving that evil bastard” she paused “Or bitch… wait what am in there?…”

The little girl smiled “Doesn’t matter, but look the more you think about morality the more dead we are for he will get out of this world. And … we will die”

What…

Mr Vorlds shook his shoulders. “We only exist as long as she/he reads us, we need to be of use to him/her, right now s/he’s thinking that you will give him a weapon, let’s go search a way to make a weapon…” the little Vorlds princess winked at Fatimah, “Trust me I got this kid”

Fatima nodded.

(SYNCHRONIZATION RESTORED)

They spent the night talking by Rahama’s hospital bed. She told him the truth, She/the other person in that world wanted a weapon. She was sent here to learn how to make a weapon to defeat the emperor.

“Look,” Mr. World told her “A nuclear weapon is not a viable option, you can’t learn and remember all the knowledge from this world to make one.

A, you’re a foreign-born here. they will never trust you with this information

B, even if they did; no one person can possibly know all the knowledge needed to work a nuclear weapon.

and C, if you could make it, that ‘Emperor’ is probably going to learn how to steal it and make a nuclear weapon too, and if you both have one, you’ll end up with a nuclear winter. That kills everyone”

Fatima was now well aware of the dangers and issues of nuclear technology, she couldn’t bring this knowledge into that other world even if she wasn’t evil there…

“Biological and chemical weapons are out of the question too,” Rahma said, it wasn’t just the moral qualms but those weapons were notorious to control. “We’re useless here, there is no real technology that I feel comfortable giving … that maniac”

“Maybe I do...” The little girl that was Mr. Vorlds giggled maniacally while rubbing her cute chubby hands.

Rahma was beyond falling for the cuteness now, “Go on” she said while rubbing her temple, she was up all night puking.

“Magic!” The little girl said with a flourish!

“Magic?” Rahma was skeptical “There is no magic here, just superstition and charlatans”

“Who said anything about here!?” The Little girl had a toothy grin, “We need to travel to other worlds”

“Other books, but we’ll…” Rahma was about to say when Vorlds interrupted her.

“Not other books, this book! kid, we discover the way to travel between worlds here! using this worlds’ technology and knowledge to create a portal, using science we can create portals to other worlds, worlds with magic”

“We will stay us. Our personalities will remain the same .and maybe we can figure out a way to… I don’t know, change that ‘maniac’. Maybe we’ll teach her/him the error of their ways.”

Rahama wasn’t sure she was following Vorlds’ logic but she knew it was theoretically possible for her to create something into another world. A world where magic exists, where she would have power true power!

=========================================

You wake up and look around…

Mr. Vorlds sits next to you drinking his Soda.

“Why are they…” You’re confused for a while. Already starting to forget details.

“The Books wants to continue existing, it will try to trick you sometimes so you keep reading it.” Mr. World slumped at his chair looking dazed “If you want can go on and see if they can actually create a new weapon there or you can pick another book, a book where magic actually exists and can be used here.”

Mr. Vorlds puts three books in front of you.

* The Book of Steel, the One you were still Rahma in.

* The Book of “The Tribe Named Buddha” it has pictures of spaceships and gods fighting each other.

* The “Shitty Powers” which had a picture of nude people, you blush and Mr. Vorlds cackles at your reaction.

“That it?” You look at the books, you’re a bit suspicious of the old man now.

“The other books won’t be of any use to you now kid, these are the books that can really help you” He motions towards the three books in front of you.

“I could just leave,” you say while glancing at that other book in the distance ‘Chronicles of the Eternals’ which was tucked away behind a painting.

Vorlds shrugs, “They want you to keep reading I don’t really care one way or another. I told you from day one to only take what you can handle. You can leave at any time, I genuinely couldn’t care less.”

He rubs at his old face.

“I need to think of this” you get up and leave trying to regain some of yourself.\

Outside it is a beautiful sunset, the brick road your mother paved the village with is glowing with mage light. The sky is filled with beautiful stars.

At your parents’ home, your family is excited and happy to see you as always.

This was the real world, you remind yourself, you’re not an evil person no matter what that book says.

You still need to save this village and everyone. You need to figure out a way to save them and only that cave had answers.

You wonder if it is worth it.